In less than 2 months, my newly graduated Girl Child will be on a plane headed to Ecuador~heading thousands of miles from home for 8 months. It’s not the first time the girl has flown far, but this time she will be gone for soooooo long. (I know, I know, some day soon she will move out for good, but let’s please don’t talk about that for now….)

Anyhoo, my Girl, along with a number of other motivated young people will be taking a bridge year before heading to college.

This isn’t the kind of gap year where rich kids get sent to play in Europe and their parents pay for it. She’s taking part in a structured international immersion program called Global Citizen Year. Accepted youth work as interns in education, agriculture or environmental areas, live with a local family, and go much deeper than they could by just traveling.

It’s definitely made for hard working and independent thinking kids who are comfortable taking responsibility for outcomes and shaping their own education and life. That’s My Girl Child, for sure.

She earned a fantastic scholarship to make this goal happen, and is responsible for fundraising for the Global Citizen Year scholarship fund over the summer.

Please check out her fundraising page and if you are inclined to help support young people doing amazing things in the world, please contribute! Every little bit helps, and it’s a much better investment in the world than another round of coffee or fast food meal.

Check out Global Citizen Year to learn more about this awesome program~ they are definitely helping launch goodness into the world. Not just in theory, but hands on, actual and tangible improvements to the future.

My Girl has always been a go getter who doesn’t make or take excuses and I know she’ll be stretched and gain all kinds of perspective in this adventure.